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Fidel Castro, the great emancipator, left behind an archaic dictatorshipCredit:
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One of life’s tragedies is to become the thing you hate. This is precisely what happened to Fidel Castro. He promised the Cuban people liberty from colonialism and dictatorship, yet he allied his country to the imperialist Soviet Union abroad and established a tyranny at home. The country he leaves behind is archaic and fossilised – far removed from the image of youthful revolution that he once presented to the world. Cuba under Castro wasn’t a socialist paradise. It was North Korea with cheap rum.

To understand Castro, one has to understand the history of Cuba and its struggle for dignity. Once a Spanish colony, it won independence thanks to support from America. But this came at a price: the...